Over the years, audio conference calls have become a popular alternative to face-to-face meetings, particularly for participants who are geographically dispersed. Generally, conference calls may be conducted in a number of ways. In some instances where there are only two or three individuals, the individuals may simply conduct a conference call using three-way calling, a feature commonly available for many residential or commercial lines. One person will generally place a call to one of the individuals. Once that call is placed, the person may then place a second phone call (by pressing the flash button) to the third individual. This, however, requires coordination and planning beforehand as all the parties must be ready to receive the call in order to avoid unnecessary delay in conducting the conference call.
Conference calls may also be conducted wherein the participants simply dial into a pre-established conference call bridge at a designated time and then enter a passcode to join the call. One perceived shortcoming with this approach, however, is that individuals who are invited to participate on a conference call must first remember the phone number for dialing into the conference call. The individuals must also generally remember some type of passcode in order to join in the proper conference call. In many instances, the conference call number and the corresponding passcode are sent via e-mail. Understandably, this can sometimes present a challenge given the large number of e-mails that individuals may receive at work or at home on a daily basis.
Another perceived shortcoming is that the host (the person conducting the conference call) generally does not know who will be participating in the call unless the individuals each notify the host whether he will be participating in the conference call. Another perceived shortcoming is the fact that even though a time may be designated for the conference call, participants generally dial in at different times such that participants who dial in first must wait for the remaining participants to dial in before the conference call may be conducted. Therefore, a need exists in the industry to address these deficiencies and inadequacies.